Swedish authorities confirmed that Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, cofounder of The Pirate Bay, had arrived in Sweden on Tuesday morning, where he was promptly arrested by regional police (Länskriminalens) on suspicion of hacking a Swedish tech company and acquiring private tax data. Svartholm Warg was questioned by local authorities immediately upon his arrival, after having been deported, reportedly on an expired residency visa, from Cambodia on Monday.

"The preliminary investigation concerning hacking against the company Logica and Tax Board in the spring, made against a person of interest, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, previously convicted in Sweden for copyright infringement," the Swedish International Public Prosecution Office wrote in a statement released to Swedish media.

In a conversation with Ars, Swedish authorities confirmed Svartholm Warg’s arrival in Sweden, and said that he has not yet been formally charged with a crime.

“The prosecutor has until Friday to indict him,” said Fredrik Berg, press officer at the Swedish Prosecution Authority. “The investigation is ongoing. He’s in detention now and is waiting for further investigation. This [arrest] has nothing to do with The Pirate Bay case. He was brought to Sweden to serve the time for the previous sentence [in connection to The Pirate Bay conviction], but the Swedish prosecutor has held him for another crime. I don’t think he will be sent to jail for the earlier conviction until this issue is resolved.”

Svartholm Warg, along with three others, was convicted of “assisting in making copyrighted content available.” Very little of the $6.5 million that they were collectively ordered to pay has been collected. Last year, Svartholm Warg’s order to serve one year in prison was finalized by the Swedish court as he failed to come to the appeals hearing in person. In February 2012, the Supreme Court of Sweden declined to hear an appeal of the case.

As of 9am Tuesday morning in Sweden, just hours after his return to his homeland, neither his attorney Ola Salomonsson nor his mother had been able to see him.

“If he has arrived here, he will have to contact me. That’s how it is,” Salomonsson told Ars.

Kristina Svartholm, reached at her home in the Swedish capital, said that she went early in the morning to the Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, but was not allowed to see her son.

“I tried over and over again, at least to be permitted to look at him at a distance—but no,” she told Ars.

Svartholm Warg, 27, who is also known online as “Anakata,” appears to be the third suspect in a case involving a hack of Logica, a Swedish IT firm that contracts with the Swedish tax authority. Earlier this year, Logica was hit by an online attack that resulted in around 9,000 Swedes (Google Translate) having their personal identity number and names released to the public.

Normally in Sweden, such data is made public, but there are cases where that data can be kept hidden—as it was amongst the people that were targeted. However there has been some speculation in the Swedish media if that data was genuine. Still, two Swedes were arrested (Google Translate) earlier in 2012 in connection with this case, one of which was a former member of Piratbyrån (Pirate Bureau), the group that later founded The Pirate Bay.

Cyrus Farivar
Cyrus is the Senior Business Editor at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is due out in May 2018 from Melville House. Emailcyrus.farivar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@cfarivar

He doesn't look at all like what I thought a warg would look like. Looks like LOTR got it completely wrong. As a matter of fact, why would you want to ride him into battle at all, seems inefficient, and a tactical mistake. (Although the cargo pants do provide some extra carrying capacity I guess.)

I think hacking the private firm holding tax data got the powers the be all riled up. Nobody likes to be demonstrated to be incompetent in a public manner. When will there come a day when all the hackers get is encrypted data instead of useful "payloads."

Well, I have to say that the Pirate Bay has done alot more for me than the taxman has, so I know where my sympathies lie.

Then you must live in cave and use cellular broadband that's powered by rubbing rabbit fur on a piece of plastic. Either that or Pirate Bay has been contributing a lot more to the national infrastructure than I would have imagined.

Well, I have to say that the Pirate Bay has done alot more for me than the taxman has, so I know where my sympathies lie.

Then you must live in cave and use cellular broadband that's powered by rubbing rabbit fur on a piece of plastic. Either that or Pirate Bay has been contributing a lot more to the national infrastructure than I would have imagined.

Considering the kind of social welfare state that exists in sweeden, that comment is even funnier.

Well, I have to say that the Pirate Bay has done alot more for me than the taxman has, so I know where my sympathies lie.

Then you must live in cave and use cellular broadband that's powered by rubbing rabbit fur on a piece of plastic. Either that or Pirate Bay has been contributing a lot more to the national infrastructure than I would have imagined.

Considering the kind of social welfare state that exists in sweeden, that comment is even funnier.

Considering how successful Sweden's social welfare state is, it more makes me sad than humored.

(Snip). When will there come a day when all the hackers get is encrypted data instead of useful "payloads."

Enabling BitLocker full disk encryption in later versions of Windows Server takes about three mouse clicks. Encryption has never been easier, yet organizations still don't use it. So while it makes sense that better days would be coming in this regard, those who control the data just don't seem that interested. It doesn't even appear that use of full disk encryption is increasing on laptops, where it would appear to be a no-brainer.

(Snip). When will there come a day when all the hackers get is encrypted data instead of useful "payloads."

Enabling BitLocker full disk encryption in later versions of Windows Server takes about three mouse clicks. Encryption has never been easier, yet organizations still don't use it. So while it makes sense that better days would be coming in this regard, those who control the data just don't seem that interested. It doesn't even appear that use of full disk encryption is increasing on laptops, where it would appear to be a no-brainer.

It would help if more computers came with TPM chips, which are required for BitLocker. Only pro-grade laptops like Thinkpads, Elitebooks and Precisions seem to have them.

Well, I have to say that the Pirate Bay has done alot more for me than the taxman has, so I know where my sympathies lie.

The fact that you use electricity, disprove your statement already.

I expect he's coming from the "taxes suck" angle. But we do pay taxes for all those governmenty things - it's the taxman's job, not altruism. The Pirate Bay doesn't charge us anything for what it does. /Devil's Advocate

This reminds me of Al Capone. They supposedly got him deported for screwing with the tax system, not for copyright infringement. Hollywood is slipping, even letting somebody else claim the glory.

What part of the world do you live in where electricity is provided by the government and funded by taxation? I have to pay a private company (true, it is a government granted monopoly) every month for every kilowatt hour I use.

Maybe I'm reading incorrectly, but he didn't "hack taxes" in such a way that he stole or altered tax payments. All the hack did was release some tax returns that were (for some reason, even though normally tax returns are public in sweden) sealed. In other words, all he did was promote transparency, he did nothing to harm the tax system or decrease tax revenue.

The guy released other people's information that wasn't supposed to be released and couldn't be bothered to maintain his proper status of residence in the country where he lived. But he's the hero in all of this because copyright bad something something. Did I get that right?

(Snip). When will there come a day when all the hackers get is encrypted data instead of useful "payloads."

Enabling BitLocker full disk encryption in later versions of Windows Server takes about three mouse clicks. Encryption has never been easier, yet organizations still don't use it. So while it makes sense that better days would be coming in this regard, those who control the data just don't seem that interested. It doesn't even appear that use of full disk encryption is increasing on laptops, where it would appear to be a no-brainer.

Full disk encryption isn't going to protect your data from network access; it will only protect the data against physical access to the storage. Filesystem level encryption would be needed, which isn't always practical.

The reason for these breaches is poor security in networks and application, and also ineffective server hardening.

The guy released other people's information that wasn't supposed to be released and couldn't be bothered to maintain his proper status of residence in the country where he lived. But he's the hero in all of this because copyright bad something something. Did I get that right?

Not a hero, but I was unable to find out why these people where exempted from tax disclosure. Consequently I can't tell whether there is something fishy about that. These guys will maintain hero potential as long as goverments don't disclose information needed to silence them. But they may have, I just wasn't able to find it. Any Swedes here in the know?

The guy released other people's information that wasn't supposed to be released and couldn't be bothered to maintain his proper status of residence in the country where he lived. But he's the hero in all of this because copyright bad something something. Did I get that right?

Special people that are exceptions to the country's usual law about tax returns being public. I couldn't give less of a fuck.

And my main point was that he wasn't being charged with stealing tax money or avoiding paying taxes like some people seem to think.

I don't know about Swedish law, but I could think of some reasons why it might not be public available. Maybe a person is in the equivelent of Swedish Witness Protection Program (if there is one there). Maybe it is a person of particular prominance. Maybe a victim of a crime or a restraining order.

I can think of a number of legitimate reasons why, even in a society with high transparency and tax returns are just willie nillie out there, why you'd want to keep some from being public. I can also think of legitimate reasons why making those tax returns public could be very VERY bad (such as WitPro, protection order, etc).

Why are people debating (I use that word in the loosest way possible) whether this guy is right, wrong, a terrorist, martyr or hero? The real question here is:

Why is one section of the Swedish populace held to a lesser standard of tax transparency?I bet 100USD on those tax records belonging to politicians or corporate entities, and also being completely out of order and/or being significantly less than what the average citizen contributes.

A secondary question might be; why is someone being nailed to the wall for exposing this information?In short, this whole thing stinks of government corruption.

precambrian wrote:

One Sick Puppy wrote:

Well, I have to say that the Pirate Bay has done alot more for me than the taxman has, so I know where my sympathies lie.

Then you must live in cave and use cellular broadband that's powered by rubbing rabbit fur on a piece of plastic. Either that or Pirate Bay has been contributing a lot more to the national infrastructure than I would have imagined.

Unless the economic situation in Sweden is radically different from the rest of the world;

House = built by private companyBroadband = provided by private companyElectricity = provided by private company

Are you saying that millions in taxes need to spent each year to allow companies monopolies in these sectors, and that these services are impossible to provide otherwise?

Herman Cain, some bureaucratic fuck in the U.S government, once said;"If 10 percent is good enough for God, 9 percent ought to be good enough for the government"Even though he is a corrupt asshat, the message itself happens to be quite profound. It shows how in 2000(?) years, we have simply transitioned from overt physical slavery, to covert economic slavery.

No matter what way you cut it, having a government provide essential services like planning, roads, emergency services, social welfare... simply DOES NOT require over half of everyone's income each year (income tax + VAT + misc taxes), 9 percent tax on everyone, for example, could easily provide all this, it just couldn't also cover the bureaucracy, waste and embezzlement that governments all over the world seem to love so much.

Your tax dollars/euros/kronor are mostly funding the private pockets of those perpetuating the scam that is government, the shitty infrastructure is only there to keep you placated. If you really think your tax is well spent, just look at the quality and efficiency of pretty much any government service, starting with servers that can apparently be broken into routinely by bored teenagers over the weekend...

If tax wasn't a raw deal, it wouldn't have to be taken by force in the first place.